


Once Again

by rydellon



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Character Death, EXO OT12, Friendship, Gen, M/M, this is really bad im sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-07 17:03:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18877438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rydellon/pseuds/rydellon
Summary: Chanyeol looks back on his high school experience during Junmyeon's graduation.





	Once Again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [moorauders](https://archiveofourown.org/users/moorauders/gifts).



The hallway was dead silent, as it should be.

 

It was graduation, for the seniors at least, and Chanyeol wasn’t really supposed to be here (Junmyeon had formally requested for him not to come, probably because if more people were there he would cry harder, the softie.) but he was anyway.

 

He trailed his hands down the lockers, glancing up at the large XOXO banner hanging in the front hallway as he thought back on his past 2 years at this school.

 

Watching Minseok, Junmyeon, Yixing, Yifan, and Luhan each leave their quiet small town middle school to attend the high school in town was one of the hardest things he had ever done, and he can’t imagine how it must have been for Jongin and Sehun, who were the last two to leave.

 

When the day for the high school tour at his school came he was ecstatic, not having heard from his older friends as much when they started high school, and when they met up again they reconnected like a house on fire.

 

Him, Baekhyun, and Jongdae were quickly integrated back into the friend group as freshmen, sitting with the 11th and 10th graders in the little nook of the school Yifan had claimed from Jinki (12th grader, scary) when he was in 10th grade.

 

They were happy, sitting together, hanging out, Chanyeol and Jongdae acting as the bridge between them and their friends who were still in middle school, going back to being one, big, happy friend group.

 

And then Chanyeol’s sophomore year had rolled around.

 

He still remembers when it happened, Yifan coming to school looking harrowed, sitting down and looking Junmyeon (and Chanyeol and Zitao, a freshman at the time, who just happened to be talking with Junmyeon at that point. To this day Chanyeol still thinks that Yifan didn’t know they were there until Chanyeol rushed to Junmyeon’s side) that he had gotten a girl pregnant and would be leaving the school immediately as his parents were sending him to a boarding school across the country.

 

Junmyeon had been silent for a few seconds before the tears started coming, and Chanyeol can still visualize it, Junmyeon searching for something besides Yifan to look at and fixing on that XOXO banner. Chanyeol rushed to Junmyeon’s side after that. Yifan stood up and walked away.

 

Both Junmyeon and Yifan weren’t at the school the next day and while Junmyeon came back after a week, albeit sporting red-rimmed eyes and without the usual spring in his step, Yifan didn’t come back.

 

Next to go was Luhan, who got a job opportunity as a model halfway through the year, around six months after Yifan left.

 

His instagram following jumped up in numbers immediately, his face attracting people and companies from all around the globe, and his bilinguality helping him get more jobs.

 

He still texts sometimes, so it’s kind of okay, but Chanyeol still misses him, the old him, the one who would walk across the street at one text from Jongdae, the one who would coddle Chanyeol until he wanted to yell, the one who did things without being asked and who stayed Junmyeon and the group’s pillar through the hard times along with Yixing, supporting them through the good days and the bad and always letting Junmyeon cry it out and whisper the “I thought he loved me”’s on repeat into his shirt.

 

Chanyeol was happy for him, he really was. Earlier that year they had all gathered together to watch one of Luhan’s movies and by the end everyone was sobbing (the movie itself was quite happy, but Minseok and Jongdae had missed Luhan probably the most and started crying when they realized the movie would be over which caused everyone else to start crying in one big puddle), but sometimes Chanyeol just wants those simple times back.

 

Times before his sophomore year, times before the biggest loss that would ever hit their friend group struck them with no warning.

 

Chanyeol had to delete that chat off of his phone, the one he wanted to keep with all of Yifan’s messages in it, the one that Junmyeon (and, by proxy, everyone else) had stopped using after Yifan left. The one with those messages.

 

Timestamped at 11:48 AM, Jongin had texted in a panic because Tao was bleeding to death in an alleyway.

 

Messages had started flooding in, 9 sets of hands pouring over their phone keys, even though they were all sitting next to each other under the banner. Even Luhan, who was in China at the time.

 

Junmyeon tried to run out of the school before Jongin told him the police and the ambulance had already arrived and he had to give a statement. The middle schooler was even a suspect in the case for a while before his parents and Taemin provided his alibi. They had been skipping school when Zitao got separated from them, and while they were looking for them they went by the alley and saw Tao bleeding out on the floor.

 

Chanyeol didn’t think he had ever seen Junmyeon, Minseok, and Yixing as close to murdering someone as they had been at the trial, Zitao’s murderer sitting on a table in front of them, sentenced to life in prison for his string of murders of young asian americans. Zitao was his last killing before he went in.

 

Chanyeol looked into that group chat once more before deleting it, watched the ‘seen’ checkmark light up, meaning everyone in the chat had seen the message, and deleted the chat in its entirety, his admin privileges giving him that opportunity. They didn’t need that. Not now.

 

Tao’s death only drew them closer, everyone’s lasting fear of the killer’s motive lasting in the air, making all of them create a buddy system.

 

Chanyeol walked by the alleyway only once after it happened.

 

Their dried flowers were still there, some of the stems stained a dull red. Chanyeol threw them out and walked away.

 

And now, a year after everything happened, Junmyeon and Yixing were graduating, Yixing starting to work for the dance studio close to his and Junmyeon’s new university and studying dance, while Junmyeon was working at a coffee shop on campus, going into psychology.

 

Minseok had already graduated a year earlier, but had gone to a community college in town to stay close to their friend group for the coming year. He had found a programme he really liked and was continuing to do it.

 

And he was at Junmyeon’s graduation.

 

So, that brought Chanyeol here, on the cusp of his last year of high school, all the knowledge he would ever need about different colleges and universities stuck in his mind even though he already knew where he wanted to go.

 

“Chanyeol?”

 

Chanyeol’s head snapped up.

 

There was Kyungsoo, at the end of the hallway, surrounded by Jongdae, Baekhyun, Jongin and Sehun.

 

They both stared at each other for a while, before Chanyeol broke into a smile.

 

“You’re not supposed to be here,” Chanyeol said.

 

Baekhyun broke into loud laughter, which triggered Jongdae’s laugher, which broke the rest of them down until they were all a laughing mess, in various states of on the floor and standing.

 

“We were planning on surprising him after the ceremony, so he doesn’t cry like a baby in front of everybody,” Kyungsoo says, and Chanyeol nods.

 

“Same. Why didn’t you guys tell me you were doing this?” Chanyeol cried.

 

“Well, no,” Jongin said.

 

“I’m not Baekhyun!”

 

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

 

“Guys?”

 

Sehun pointed to the end of the hallway, where someone was sprinting towards them.

 

He reached them quickly, ripping off his mask to reveal Luhan.

 

“I heard Junmyeon and Yixing were graduating today, and I thought…I don’t know there was a break in my schedule and I was near here after my schedule and I thought I’d come…” Luhan trailed off.

 

They all kind of stood there for a few seconds, looking at Luhan in a state of shock, until Jongdae let out a shriek and threw himself at the older.

 

“Luhan!”

 

Luhan didn’t catch Jongdae and they both crumpled into the floor, everyone else piling on top of them after.

 

Chanyeol, buried under Sehun’s legs and Baekhyun’s arms, thought about how everything happened to their friend group under this XOXO banner, how everything that happened here was either good or bad somehow, affecting them all in different ways.

 

“Guys? What the _fuck_ are you doing here?” Junmyeon screams, rounding the hallway with Yixing trailing after him.

 

“Gege?” Yixing asks, and Luhan sticks his hand up from the bottom of the pile.

 

“Luhan!” Junmyeon cries, “guys get! Get off of Luhan wh—why!”

 

One by one they all stepped off of Luhan, letting Junmyeon step forward to give him a hug. After Junmyeon stepped away Jongdae immediately reattached himself.

 

“I told you guys to stay home didn’t I? We were going to meet up after!” Junmyeon said.

 

“We wanted to surprise you,” Chanyeol said, “we…we wanted to there for you. Both of you.”

 

“I…” Junmyeon trailed off. Sehun wrapped his arms around Yixing’s shoulders.

 

Junmyeon teared up, “After everything we went through here I can’t believe I’m graduating with all of you…and standing under this banner after all of it.”

 

They all look up. Seems like Chanyeol wasn’t the only one to notice the common theme.

 

Fat tears started rolling down Junmyeon’s face, “Just…after everything we’ve been through… I’m so glad we can continue being here for each other. Thank you so much guys I just. Thank you.”

 

“No, thank you Junmyeon,” Baekhyun mumbled into Junmyeon’s shirt.

 

“Thank you for making sure we all stayed together after everything, I don’t know how we—”

 

“Junmyeon?”

 

Junmyeon froze.

 

So did everyone else, but Chanyeol noticed that it was more prominent in Junmyeon. He flinches, stiffening. His tears stopped, and his face hardened.

 

“Yifan.”

 

He doesn’t turn around.

 

“What are you doing here?” Yixing asks.

 

“I…they…it’s graduation?”

 

“Why would you come for graduation?” He asks.

 

“Junmyeon’s grad…he…we,” he trailed off.

 

“No!” Junmyeon whips around, “my grad nothing! You don’t get to fuck off for two years then come back for…for me? When you already left! No! Fuck you. Fuck off.”

 

Junmyeon storms out, and everyone runs after him, Chanyeol taking a step before looking back, at Yifan standing down the hallway.

 

“Why are you really here? After what you did?”

 

“I wanted to see him.”

 

“Today? Of all days? After all that happened. You could have tried when Luhan left, when Tao died. Why now?”

 

“I—”

 

“No, you know what, no. Later, Yifan. Not now.”

 

So, Chanyeol runs after Junmyeon, leaving Yifan in the hallway under the XOXO banner to run after Junmyeon. He made his final decision that day, and never saw Yifan again.

 

(Until around a week later, when Junmyeon escorted Yifan into the living room in Sehun’s house, and Yifan explained everything with Chanyeol sitting on top of Minseok the whole time so that he didn’t commit a murder.)

 

**Author's Note:**

> sorry that this is shit moorauders. i tried lmao.
> 
> -luhan was at tao’s funeral in the notes but i forgot  
> -also, after yifan moved to the other school, the girl he got pregnant (who was in 1st year uni) got an abortion, and yifan wanted to come back but he couldn't due to him not being able to pay travel costs  
> -when tao died right before the chat was deleted he typed in asking if he could come to the funeral but the chat got deleted before anyone (even chanyeol) could see it  
> he payed for himself to come back for myeon and xing’s grad because 1. thats when he had enough money to come and for accommodations and 2. he knew everyone would be there  
> -before shit went down kris and myeon weren’t really dating dating but they were in mutual like  
> -after myeon’s grad luhan stays 4 more days (enough to see yifan and hear his explanation) before leaving to film for his movie  
> -on the 10th anniversary of tao’s death (chanyeol is 26) they all (plus sos and shit) have drinks in the graveyard and myeon n kris get together
> 
>  
> 
> [ **my cc** ](https://curiouscat.me/ry_dellon)
> 
>  
> 
> [ **my twt** ](https://twitter.com/sunjaes)


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